Grow operation busts to increase in 2011: RCMP
By Nelson Daily Editor
Canada’s national police force will be committing more resources to ferreting out marijuana grow operations and other drug trade activities in the West Kootenay region this year, says the Kootenay Boundary Regional Detachment’s staff sergeant.
Dan Siebel said marijuana grow operation busts will continue to increase this year as they have for the last two, according to the annual performance plan the detachment has drawn up for the area.
Over the past two summers the RCMP have had specific “projects” planned that they have designated time and resources to uncovering outdoor marijuana grow operations.
In 2009 there were 88 grow operations uncovered and 15,000 plants destroyed, up from around 75 the year before. In 2010 they were able to “bump it up a notch” and found 96 sites and disposed of 20,000 plants.
That number will climb in 2011, said Sgt. Siebel.
“We’ve made it a priority in our annual performance plan to address that,” he said about the increase in Controlled Drugs and Substances Act charges laid in the area.
“In general terms, when you look at our particular detachment area, it does border along the U.S. and Canada border, more so than perhaps other areas. So with (five) actual border crossings … from an RCMP perspective, organized crime and the drug smuggling is a priority.”
With regionalization of the RCMP detachment three years ago, the RCMP formed a general investigation plainclothes unit based out of Trail in the spring of 2009. That unit has been the impetus for much of the increase in charges, said Sgt. Siebel.
Last summer the plainclothes unit made its presence felt in a “resource-intensive” investigation in the West Kootenay/Boundary that resulted in 21 people being charged with 43 drug trafficking offences.
Members of the plainclothes unit embarked on Project E-PYLORUS, targeting drug trafficking at various events in communities within the West Kootenay/Boundary over the summer.
The investigators targeted drug dealers at three music festivals — Nakusp Music Fest, Kaslo Jazz Fest, Shambhala Music Festival near Salmo — and the Grand Forks International Baseball Tournament.
People ranging in age from 17 to 59 years old from Revelstoke, Nakusp, Kaslo, Riondel, Castlegar, Nelson, Grand Forks, Kamloops and Abbotsford with up to five counts of drug trafficking each were charged.
The various drugs involved in these offences were marijuana, LSD, ketamine, psilocybin mushrooms, MDA powder, ecstasy pills, cocaine and methamphetamine.
The Project and the emphasis on outdoor grow operation busts are based on a number of things, including feedback the RCMP has received from various communities, citizens and elected officials, said Sgt. Siebel.
Further afield
RCMP have formed a task force in an attempt to halt the spread of marijuana grow-ops in the Cariboo region north of the West Kootenay/Boundary region.
The Cariboo Region Integrated Marijuana Enforcement task force arrested 24 people and seized 54,000 marijuana plants from 27 grow-ops since it was launched in September, according to RCMP figures.
The task force was created after police noticed an increase in the number of indoor and outdoor marijuana grow-ops popping up in Prince George, Williams Lake, Quesnel, 100 Mile House and other communities in the region.
Grow operation bylaw in Nelson
With the new chief constable of the Nelson Police Department set to take over in mid January, there is no word yet on whether the force will continue to pursue development of a grow operation bylaw under the tutelage of the new chief.
Wayne Holland could continue with the work of Dan Maluta in bringing the controversial legislation to light in the Heritage city in 2011, as City council continues to update and create its legion of bylaws.
Police still contend the Nelson grow operation bylaw is not contrary to the federal bill to levy mandatory minimum sentences: http://mapinc.org/url/bVpDtZuC
Civil rights groups in Nelson have said the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure still exists in BC, as upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal when it struck down provisions of a similar bylaw in Surrey.
See http://www.bccla.org/pressreleases/10Arkinstall_media_advisory.pdf for more.
The decision is available here:
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/Court_of_Appeal/recent_Judgments.aspx
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/10/02/2010BCCA0250.htm
